Jo & Margie's Amazing Western Adventute

8 September 2017

Took long enough for me to wrap this trip up!! Let me fill you in on the last leg. Traveled right across SD. So glad to see the Welcome to Minnesota sign. Although we'd gotten pretty at this vagabond life. I'll let the pictures tell the tale. Home was intact, nothing had been done
10:45

28 August 2017

19:06
Home at last!

14:40
After we there yet?

14:32

12:43
Traveling home

27 August 2017

11:43
Got on the road at 9:30am. Very windy... Typical for this drive. Waze says we'll be home by 3:30 something. I'm thinking a little later. Fried chicken for lunch. Got a new book on tape, Evanovich Novel.

26 August 2017

20:37
On the last leg! Glorious south Dakota!! Cruised into Murdo SD minutes before the next huge t-storm hit town! Kept the truck hitched to the camper, noting town was half lights on half off. Hiked to the café above campsite to find no electricity, no food. We walked 2 blocks to the only lights on café in town. As we ate fried chicken & salad bar the storm hit. There were date with only a sweatshirt to cover us. I never take a raincoat...Jo does but didn't tonight! A fellow from the café drove us home I in his old pick up! Before we hit the sack Jo wondered if the switch was on in the electric box. I went to check, switched it on and we're put on there CPaps and zzzed away.

18:06
Yes, totally BORING!!!

17:59
South Dakota is so so so so boring...

12:29
Well, what a day it is today! Jo headed off to get the oil changed and I tidied up the camper, pulled in the bedroom slideout and went to pull in the living room. I paused to retract the awning and it didn't go. I toggled there switch back and forth. Nothing. Called hilltop camper on Rochester, got the parts guy who transferred me to service on the Twin Cities. Had to tell the office we would be delayed. Found out it takes a community to raise an awning!! Steve from campground, hilltop service, keystone, neighbors from California, we finally bypassed the dead motor and raised it manually. Didn't pull out till after 3:30. Poor Jo had to walk back to the campsite to get her phone. Driving iffy, very windy. Staying in Mordo SD.

25 August 2017

11:52
From wind cave Natl park to Custer. And shrooms Atty campsite.

11:21
Jo was able to get an appt for the truck's oil change for tomorrow morning. Got tired of seeing the check engine light!! So today we're visiting Wind Cave National Park outside of Custer. Jo took the cave tour, my knee wouldn't make the 350 stairs going downhill!! I have a picture of her starting out. I read everything at the visitor's center. She'll take pictures of the cave's insides for me!!

24 August 2017

18:26

10:54
Heading home. Stopped in Custer for 2 nights. We both wish we could keep on traveling! There drive was in and out of hills and flat sagebrush. Lizzy cat was squirrelly today. The Welikit campground is beautiful. Nice site that Jo, after much trial and error and patience, superbly backed in to. Cooked potatoes, onions and salmon for dinner. Yummy. But forgot the cooler slaw!!

23 August 2017

11:32
Started out drive back to civilization, so to speak! Really gonna miss the Tetons. At least we're still in WY. Curvy mountain roads. Listened to our book on tape and watched the outside temps rise! Pulled into Plate River campground East of Casper. Opted not to cook soi ordered a pizza. Took forever to cook and make the 3-ish mile trek top us! Wine, pizza and beer!

22 August 2017

20:25
This is been one of the most awesome vacations we've ever taken together. Now I see how people sell their homes and travel around the country after they retire. We could very easily do that! Lots of beautiful memories on this trip. To bad our kids and grandkids couldn't come with us. That would've been the icing on the cake. I really am going to miss the mountains. We leave tomorrow morning and go to Casper Wyoming. Then off to Custer. After that it's glorious South Dakota. Too bad we just can't click your heels together like Dorothy did and just zip through South Dakota.The cat is definitely a camper!

20:13

19:12
We were able to re-up our campsite for another day hallelujah! Today we drove into Jackson to find some dry ice stock up on some staples and use Internet access (which we don't have at the campsite) to find places to stay on the way home. The traffic was even worse than we thought it would be the day after the eclipse. But we took a really neat way home. With this route we were closer to the Tetons than Highway 89.
We got back to the campsite and grilled out, Little chicken kebabs and beans. Took the cat out with us and she had a great time. Then she was ready to get back in the camper! Now we've got a fire going.

15:40

21 August 2017

13:54
Coming off the mountain. View of Jackson Hole and the Grande Tetons! Leaving Jackson. Can't believe the car jam up of folks who saw the eclipse from the park. We expected there traffic jam the other way around. Good Grief!!

12:25
Oh my God! I believe that is the neatest thing I've ever seen in my lifetime and Jo agrees. We both cried when it became a total eclipse. The Corona was larger than I had thought it would be and it got dark like night. And just before that it was red like a red sunset. Jo got some great shots of the sunset. It was just amazing to take off your glasses and actually see the moon cover up the sun. Was like a doughnut with a really really bright outside. We met a great family from England, York, I dad and his two older sons. The family next to us on the other side was so involved with taking pictures of themselves it was pretty pretty funny. It journal more about the totality of the Eclipse later.

10:04
Getting ready..

07:06
Getting ready for the eclipse! We are up on Snow King Mountain as I speak. Sitting by a dad & 2 sons who came from York in the UK. Great company.
Eclipse should start in less than an hour and last until 1-ish. It's funny listening to everyone's opinion on when, the exact path, how fast, all those things!

02:48
Well, believe it or not, we got up at 2am. The cast looked at us like we were crazy. Wanted to make sure we didn't get stuck in traffic driving to Jackson. Well... There were so few cars on the road you you could count them on 2 hand. Jackson is all totally asleep! Got a great parking spot across the street from the chairlift.

20 August 2017

11:46

10:26

19 August 2017

19:35

15:37
Whipped down to Jackson to confirm reservations for the eclipse tomorrow. This town is a ZOO. But now we're all set for tomorrow. Ate an early dinner and hit the sack at 8:30 so we could get an early start.

15:37

13:14
Jo took the kitten to our new vet Shelly in American Falls & I packed up the camper to head off to the Tetons. Beautiful drive. Jo & I both cried when we saw there Tetons again. Checked in our site and set up. After dinner took a drive up to Yellowstone to check out there wildlife. Saw 2 elk does by the side of there road. Nothing else. Rats!

18 August 2017

20:04
Looks like it's been 3 days since an entry! The week at Willow Bay/American Falls was just what the doctor ordered! I'll just highlight there days.
Went fishing on the Reservoir & Snake River. Jo caught the fish, of course! Lost a nice trout & released the whitefish.
Pics from our dinner at the café & odds and ends! Oh forgot, we visited the local bar, Tamby bartends there during the winter. Had my first hazelnut beer. Not too bad.

14:10
More from the days I forgot! Took a drive to Pokie to visit Fred Meyers. ❤️ those stores. Got another little grill, small Weber, of course. Had Tamby & hubby Anthony over for dinner,. Crab, corn on the cob, salmon, salad she made & desert! Our last day we went to Massacre Rocks State Park to check out the Oregon Trail. Very exciting. Brought back memories of when I lived in La Grande OR and the trail was by my house. Are dinner at the campground cafe, crab legs & shrimp. Meet Helen & her family & friends. Shelly the vet who gave Lizzy her last shot the next morning originally from Buffalo! Helen and I shared a bottle of wine Jo so graciously went back to the camper to get for me!

16 August 2017

First off, moments I forgot to mention during the past few days. The first one that comes to mind was Monday's dinner. Remember that it rained and we didn't go fishing so we came to the little café to get a meal. Mother ordered ranch on the side for her salad. Dinner came and by the salad was a little tiny container that was white with the lid on it. It looked pretty sick when she put it on and she smeared it all over the green salad. Then she took a bite. Her meal was a French dip sandwich. And yes you guessed it right if your answer was horseradish sauce instead of ranch dressing! Needless to say they brought her a new salad.
Of course now, telling that story, I totally forgot the other crazy things that happened. When I do I'll jot them down. Today we found a spot to go fishing north east of where we are. And off we went. waze was on for direction and I just nation was Henry's Fork. We kept driving further and further into the country almost on dirt roads and when it told us to turn
18:01

16:29
Continued from above. So there was no where to turn left so we drove into town, only 200 people, and a spot too far from us to fish today was suggested. Well we hopped in the car and drove back to the camper but made a pitstop on the way home. A place we could not resist. Wait for it… The potato Museum! It's in the little town of Blackfoot Idaho and it has got to be one of the best little museums I have ever been to. I think it beats the spam museum in spades. After that adventure we drove back to the campsite in order to pasta dinners to go. Will go back tomorrow to the Blackfoot reservoir and try our hand at fishing. The campsite owners are going to come to our site for dinner tomorrow.

13:54
Some pictures from last night sunset over the reservoir and mother trying to play cards. Then more shots of the potato museum the circular house we saw when we got lost and someone's pretty garden!

15 August 2017

19:32
Here we are, another day in paradise! Jo told me I'm talking too loudly so I'll whisper it up here. We had a leisurely morning drinking coffee and showering. Then we made the trek into Pocatello Idaho to get some dry ice to keep the crab and fish frozen. That task done, we came back to the camper got our fishing stuff and took off to the reservoir side of the dam. Jo waded into the water at the beach. she cast out several times if not more and nothing. I spent the entire blasted time getting my pole rigged up, only to lose it all after the first cast.
So we got in the car and went to the snake River side of the dam. Jo got a couple a nibbles and I got stuck on the bottom again! So we came back to the camper to play cards and cook dinner. We're going to steam up some corn on the cob and a couple of Dungeoness crab. So see, we don't need fish!

14 August 2017

12:51
Well, the pictures below pretty much sum up today! I'm waiting for the one washer to free up so I can do the laundry and Jo is back at the camper cleaning her heart out bless her! It's chilly 64° and softly raining. Thought we take a quick drive into Pocatello to check out a larger city! Someone fortunately, no fishing today.
Some of the pics are of Lizzy Who is trying to get her ball from underneath her bed which she flipped over all by herself. So glad we brought her with us.

12:43
Continued from the last entry. Now that first family that was at the dock when we started fishing said whitefish weren't good to eat at this time of the year. But they had left and the guys that were fishing when Jo caught it didn't have a clue what it was either. So Herman went and I gutted & filleted it only to have the two of us decide you really didn't want to eat it! We had taken out our ocean bass to defrost so that's when I cooked up for dinner. Dinner was at 9 PM and it was fabulous!

13 August 2017

18:41
Well to wrap up yesterday we went to look for a good place to fish on the reservoir side of the dam but there were too many kids. So then we went to the snake River side of the dam, after Joe asked around and discovered that was an excellent place to fish off the docks. Well, Jo got bites like crazy I tell you what! She pulled in a very small but look like a perch. The poor thing swallowed her hook so it ended up biting the dust. Then she caught a beautiful larger fish. Didn't have time to really see what it was but I thought it was a trout! We didn't have time to check it out because we'd left the net in the truck. So, it's Joe tried to lift it up for me to grab and as I grab the thing jumped off the hook. And that is no the story. Then she had several more bites caught a bottom feeder whitefish which we threw back and then another whitefish. Now with that one we weren't sure what it was because it didn't look like the other whitefish. So we kept it.

10:40
Our little campsite

10:13
Started the day at 9 AM, a little late but we're on vacation! Fixed a cuppa coffee bowl of cereal and join Joe outside to eat and sip. Brought Lizzy out with us and I'll add some pictures of her outside. It's a nice 77° with a nice little breeze and Jo is putting up the kitchen tent. We had to re-steal our picnic table from the site next-door because three sites down had a million people and they stole lots of picnic tables. Not sure if that makes sense. And I guess it doesn't matter. Ha ha.

12 August 2017

19:28
A little hike we took after dinner yesterday. (8/12/17)

18:56
A days drive from Boise to cute little American Falls, Idaho. Oh joy! Stayed at Willow bay campgrounds for a week. Came on the 12th and left on the 19th. Tamby the owner was full of energy and a great campgrounds owner. The first day we got settled & explored the area.

16:29
More pics from today

13:35
Pics from our travels in Idaho.

13:13
OK we should be caught up by now. Short drive from Boise Idaho to American Falls Idaho. We are here to stay for a long bit. And that equates to seven days without moving the trailer. Yeah hey yay says Jo. We are now sitting outside of our little camp area, which is shaded by the way, looking at the huge American falls reservoir. It's a damned up portion of the snake River in Idaho. Tomorrow we're off to get our fishing licenses and fish for seven beautiful days. Apparently the large and small mouth bass are biting like crazy. I'll let you know end of day tomorrow! But I'm hoping I'll be cooking up some fish for dinner. Of course we have our back up bass we caught in the ocean. Mama Joe wants me to cook it tonight but there isn't a table for me to put my grill on and she dropped a plastic water bottle Down in the gas stove somewhere. Looks like a quiet night of reading and relaxing. More later...

11 August 2017

10:26
Even though I'm running this today this is about yesterday. We traveled from Dayville Idaho through beautiful Windee deserted roads. Made it to Boise Idaho which was basking in 102°. This was our night at a wretched KO a campground. There had to be 300 wall-to-wall RVs, side to side, which 2 inches between each one. It was horrible. We set up and drove to Meridian which is now part of Boise for dinner. Jo was dying of heat stroke and I wasn't much better ha ha. Who knows when it cool down during the night but we kept the air on thank God. We left it in record time to get the shit out of Shiloh.

10 August 2017

18:20
Today we locked up the camper, put the cat in the truck and headed off to central Oregon on our way to fish around Pocatella Idaho.drove into Dayville around 5:30 PM set up the camper, drove two seconds into town to the only café, ate a hamburger and now we're about to hit the sack to head out tomorrow to drive to Boise Idaho.
Drove through an active forest fire area. You could really smell the smoke and the trees were freshly charred. It was a beautiful drive which took us over two mountain ranges and over the Pacific crest Trail. Now we're down in the valley with a lot of sagebrush and horses and it looks like cowboy country!

8 August 2017

12:21
The next day we drove into Florence Oregon to the store and purchased a vacuum sealer. Then we walked around town and even drove to some of the businesses where you could buy charms to complete a charm bracelet from the area. Of course that took forever, which got us back to the camper late to face The process up putting up all that seafood.. Jo even did a load of wash in the middle of the whole process. The crab is juicy so some batches took a while to vacuum seal but we Gotter done! And finally sat down to our own crab dinner at about 8:30 PM.

09:01
Well it's been three days since I last journal. And they were jampacked days, that's for sure!Tuesday we got up early, for us, and drove to Winchester Bay. There we met up with Travis and Jackson ordered their little fishing vessel and headed out to the ocean and jetty. We each caught a coho salmon, Jackson caught a black bass which he gave us, and then we both got our limit of Dungeoness crab! So we headed back to the campground with 24 crab that we have boiled and then put on iceand all the salmon and bass fillited and also on ice. We had to run to town to buy another cooler to contain all that seafood!
We were so exhausted all we could do was crawl back into the camper and fall asleep.

7 August 2017

13:02

5 August 2017

16:21

16:18
Sitting at the campground in the laundry room. We run out of clothes almost if you can believe that! Every day we got too hot and sweaty. Of course were playing phase 10 each of us playing two different hands. Took the cat outside and we sat at the picnic table and play cards for a little while until we forced ourselves to come and do the laundry.

4 August 2017

14:09
Another amazing day in paradise! This time we left about an hour and a half to two hours earlier than yesterday, got in the truck and drove away. Our goal was to see Mount Rainier in all her glory.
We picked the best day, luck was with us. A lot of the smoky haze have left the sky and we saw her and all her beauty. Check out the photos attached. We got to drive on all the very narrow roads with all the crazy switchbacks and survived quite nicely!
On the way back, I just have to brag, I saw 17 elk does and their babies. Absolutely amazing. Now I've won some of my money back that I had given to Jo.

3 August 2017

Yea!! 🤗we just shortened our stay at Mt. Rainer to stay close to the ocean to the ocean in Oregon!!!
10:17

2 August 2017

We had the most fantastic ride off the freeway through the cascade Mountains. It's really too bad the wildfires made the skies so hazy. But you could still see mountain range after Mountain Ridge it was cool. We are now at Toutle River RV park which is huge. Oh and I guess I could mention that we got lost coming from Highway 12 to get on I five
15:55

11:16
Record start from the campground this morning. Smooth as ex-lax! Forgot to get has last night so prayed our way on drops to Thorp to fill up. And just our luck there was a fruit stand. Yummy Rainier cherries and Walla Walla onions (both sweet & delish!)

1 August 2017

Well Kristi just to let you know that there is practically nothing in Osburn Idaho but the campground where we stayed for the night!
Trotted to downtown Cle Elum WA to eat a snack and good meal at cottage no erase cozy cottage restaurant and fireside lounge. Mother had enough spaghetti and meatballs to feed nine armies and I had a burger and a fry's to feed the other half of the nine armies. Mom says to share or under a wild fire alert because of the fires in British Columbia Montana at in the state of Washington. Too bad because the haze obliterates the cascade Mountains. We better be able to see Mount rainier, that's all I have to say. We're gonna wake up tomorrow morning, drive into town and buy some bakery items for breakfast, and then hit the road for Castle rock Washington where it will stay for six days and five nights. Yay! We get to settle in for a bit and check out Mount rainier national Park.
19:56

Now we're heading off for dinner atcottage Café and fireside lounge. Then it's back to the camper I'm going to have a Genon tonic or so am I don't know what mom is going to have. We went to Safeway for they sell liquor to try to find her frozen slushy alcohol drinks but no one carries them.
As I was speaking into the phone I got an Amber alert but scared the shit out of me. As I was speaking into the phone typing this up Siri loud alarm came on my phone it was an Amber alert. And of course I'm so tired and so hungry and so wonked out I could not even remember plug an Amber alert was. If it's a kid who's been kidnapped I sure hope they're OK.
17:58

15:51
Made it to whispering Pines RV Park on the edge of the Cascades in the state of Washington. There's so many wildfires in the area that the whole sky on the horizon is a haze. It got up to 103° as we drove here and now at the park it's 97°.

14:41
These were pictures taken on the ride from Osburn ID to where we're spending the night. Hazy but beautiful scenery. So look at a map from Osborn to Cle Elum on I-90.

31 July 2017

17:46

17:45

Here we are and it's Monday! Just finished a marvelous visit with Ben and Emily and all the five grandkids. It was pretty funny on the second day which would've been yesterday we all decided, really grandma Jo decided, that we were going to play softball with the family. Which we did with enthusiasm. The only catch was it was in 90° outside.
Fun times!! This morning we had coffee loved all the family up and headed out to Osborne Idaho. We have about 200+ miles to go. Right now we're in Missoula Montana. It is really quite sad because there are lots of wild fires surrounding I 90. So there is a smoky haze in the sky. Too bad because it's really really beautiful country, not that it's not now, but it's very dry and very very smoky.
12:46

10:41
The mountains before the wildfires. The infamous hot softball game (GMeg pitched!) The kids made a hand t-shirt for GMeg And added current hand prints to GJos older shirt.

24 July 2017

Stopped for gas. In SD, now we're in Mitchell! Our rig is surely thirsty today.
13:52

11:09

11:09

11:08

We're off on our adventure! Litzy is happy, trailer's still attached, Jo is finishing her first leg of driving. I'm totally enjoying South Dakota!!
10:43